Cambodia wants to be a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council

Monday, April 28, 2008
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

Hor Nam Hong, vice-prime minister and minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said that Cambodia really wants to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council between 2013 and 2014. Hor Nam Hong made this comment during his meeting with Rama Yade, the French Secretary General of Foreign Affairs, in Phnom Penh on 23 April 2008. The Agence Khmer de Presse (AKP) quoted Hor Nam Hong as saying that the reason Cambodia wants to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council is because Cambodia never occupies any UN office yet, since it became a UN member.

France stays quiet on human rights issues in Cambodia

France provides help to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Friday, April 25, 2008
By J.M. Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

France provided an additional grant of $1 million to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. The announce was made by Rama Yade, France’s Secretary of State in charge of Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, during a press conference held on Friday 25 April, at the French embassy in Phnom Penh.

The secretary of state was on a 3-day official visit in the kingdom. One portion of this visit was dedicated to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT). Rama Yade reminded that “France was the second largest donor to the tribunal after Japan,” and that international justice was one of the priorities of France’s action overseas. “This tribunal also has a strong French influence, in particular, with the justice system based on the French law system,” she said.

For all these reasons, France reaffirms its engagement to the KRT, and provides an additional grant of $1 million for the 2008 operation. 75% of this amount will be directed to the international budget. This announcement is good news for the KRT which is still looking for an additional budget of more than $100 million in order to operate until 2011. Donor countries are still waiting for a detailed budget from the KRT before they proceed to the funding. The announcement will be made in May.

Regarding the recent news on the KRT, Rama Yade declined to “provide comments” regarding the outburst of Jacques Vergès, last Wednesday, during his client’s appeal hearing.

With a lot of prudence, Rama Yade also touched on the thorny human rights issue in the kingdom. She only said that she met both human rights defense groups and members of the government, including Hun Sen. She did not provide any public judgment on this issue, saying only that Cambodia is a “land of contrast.” On Friday morning, the timing was not reserved for thundering declarations, but it was in fact filled with diplomatic talks. However, the goal of this visit, as Rama Yade said it, wasn’t it for “re-launching the political dialog, as well as the economic and cultural exchange” between the two countries?

France Adds $1 Million to Tribunal Budget

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
25 April 2008

The French government has announced it will give $1 million to the Khmer Rouge tribunal, which continues to face a budget shortfall in its attempts to try five jailed former leaders of the regime.

“For France, justice is one of the crucial issues,” said Rama Yade, secretary of state for the French Foreign Affairs Ministry, before concluding a brief visit. “Impunity is shameful.”

Tribunal officials have said they will need as much as $114 million on top of the $56 million budgeted for the courts, if they are to continue proceedings to their conclusion, perhaps as late as 2011.

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said Yade had pledged the $1 million, expected later this year, during meetings with tribunal officials.

“A pledge is encouragement for the Khmer Rouge tribunal, even though only 25 percent of its budget is pledged to support the Cambodian side” of the courts, he said.

The European Commission has contributed about $1.5 million to support the Cambodian side of the hybrid tribunal. The Cambodians have had to take sharp measures to extend their operations in the face of dwindling finances.

In March, Khmer Rouge officials led by chief administrator Sean Visoth met with donor country representatives in New York, to fill them in on the progress of the tribunal.

Donors have been reviewing the proposed extended budget of the tribunal, and following the visit tribunal officials said they were revising their proposed funding needs.

A new budget proposal would be completed by late May, Sean Visoth said Friday.

Audit says management of Cambodian tribunal has improved after calls for reform

Friday, April 25, 2008
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodia's Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal is making significant progress in improving management problems that led to accusations of corruption, donors said Friday after a new audit.

Allegations of kickbacks and malpractice have dogged Cambodian members of the tribunal. An earlier audit initiated by the U.N. found shortcomings in its management.

The long-delayed U.N.-assisted tribunal to judge former Khmer Rouge leaders has also been plagued by political wrangling and inadequate financing.

Trials are scheduled to start later this year for atrocities committed during the 1975-79 rule of the communist Khmer Rouge, who are blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

The tribunal has Cambodian and international staff who work jointly at every level, including prosecutors, defenders and judges.

A new audit scrutinizing the Cambodian side's operations shows reforms have been effective, two diplomats from the United Nations and the European Commission said.

"This special review has shown that we (now) have a system that can work," Rafael Dochao Moreno, charge d'affaires of the European Commission's mission to Cambodia, told reporters.

Jo Scheuer, country director for the U.N. Development Program, said the audit showed "significant improvements."

He said various audits since 2006 on management of the funds for the Cambodian side have shown "no questionable financial transactions, no misallocated resources and no incomplete or missing documentation in support of disbursements" of money.

He also added that previous auditors have found "no conclusive evidence" to support the allegations of kickbacks being paid by Cambodian personnel in exchange for their jobs.

Scheuer and Moreno are members of a committee made up of representatives of the nations and agencies funding the tribunal. It commissioned the independent review by a private Indian auditing firm to look into hiring and recruitment practices, salary scales, project assurance and a code of conduct for the tribunal's Cambodian staff.

The tribunal has been seeking additional funds for operations through March 2011. It told donor countries in January it would need US$170 million (euro €108 million), a sharp increase from the originally budgeted US$56.3 million (€euro 36 million).

Rama Yade, the French minister of state for foreign affairs and human rights, told a news conference Friday that her government has pledged an additional US$1 million (€euro 630,000) to the tribunal for this year.

Rama Yade visiting Cambodia

Rama Yade, French Secretary of State in charge of Foreign Affairs and Human Rights (Photo: F. de la Mure)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

Rama Yade, French Secretary of State in charge of Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, arrived in Cambodia on 22 April, for a 4-day visit. She will have an audience with King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime minister Hun Sen.

Following her visit to the ECCC to confirm France’s support for the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, she will discuss with the co-judges and the co-prosecutors. Rama Yade will meet with various NGOs involved in human rights, and she will also raise the issue of adoption with the Cambodian authorities.

Finally, she will inaugurate the P3 laboratory at the Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh, one of the strong symbols of cooperation between France and Cambodia, in terms of epidemiological health.

Rama Yade will be accompanied by Chantal Brunel, the French MP from Seine-and-Marne and also President of the France-Cambodia friendship group of the National Assembly, and by Michèle Tabarot, the French MP from Alpes-Maritimes.